Week 3: Online meetings

I've never been able to "attend" an online meeting or webinar live, although I have listened to a couple of archives. The potential for learning and networking without traveling is terrific. However, I hope these things don't totally replace live contact, because there's something special about face to face contact. That said, these online sessions provide a wonderful opportunity to learn whenever it is convenient and without spending money on gas.

I'm also limited on when I can go to the archives, since I'm still on dial-up at home. I try to go in to work early or stay late, as I did for today's webinar "Learning About Illuminar" by Rhonda Machlan of the State Library.

I've been kind of intimidated by the new Illuminar interface on our online catalog, so this session was helpful in familiarizing me with some of its features. I'll stay late again sometime soon and customize Illuminar for my patrons before I forget what I learned!

I found the questions that people asked via audio or text as interesting as the presentation, and I wonder if their questions were really answered. That is one flaw of not being face to face...sometimes I think the questioners just give up when their question isn't really answered because it's such a hassle.

In the future, I hope to find more time to explore all the continuing ed options available through webinars. Just a cursory search showed a lot of interesting ones out there.

Week 2: Social networking

The 23 Things lesson this week is on social networking. I already had a Facebook page, but I'm encouraged to go a little deeper. I started on Facebook to see what my son was up to, then I found it was a fun way to keep in touch with people. I'd like to try to use Facebook a little more seriously, so the link to Mashable was helpful. I think the Waterville Public Library might benefit by having a presence on Facebook, so that's on my ever-increasing to-do list. (The thing never seems to get shorter!)
Meanwhile, I'll try to find more time to explore the facets of Facebook. If only we didn't have dial-up at home!

An introduction

Hello, my name is Heather Dreith. I'm the director of the Waterville (Kansas) Public Library. Waterville is a town of 642 in Marshall County, northeast Kansas. We have a fantastic library...hope you'll be able to visit us someday. Meanwhile, you can check out our under-construction website at http://waterville.mykansaslibrary.org

I'm doing this blog as part of the 23 Things Kansas training. I have a 16-year-old son and would like to understand and utilize the tools he does.

There are so many blogs out there, it's hard to know where to look. My favorite blog (so far) is by an incredible man named Dr. Terry Hamblin. He is a British haematologist who is well-known for research on Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia (CLL.) His range of interests is incredible and he writes very well. He somehow finds time to read for pleasure amongs all his activities and writes excellent mini-reviews. His blog is called Mutations of Mortality and the address is http://mutated-unmuated.blogspot.com.

I'd like to find time to look at more blogs, but it's hard. Which leads to a question I've been thinking about...how does one find time to actually live and have something to blog about!? It's sort of like texting...people who text what they're doing almost constantly. Any thoughts? I welcome your comments.